A member of UN Military Observers Group (UNMOG) in India and Pakistan talks with a young victim of alleged Indian artillery firing at the de facto border in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, at a hospital in Sialkot on Tuesday. The UNMOG visited the villages which have been badly hit by Indian firing in Charwah, Chaprar and Pukhlian sectors on the working boundary near Sialkot.
AFP/Islamabad
Senior Pakistani and Indian military officials spoke on Tuesday via a special hotline after days of intense cross-border firing in the disputed region of Kashmir heightened tensions.
At least 20 civilians have been killed and thousands on both sides of the de facto border have fled their homes in the last fortnight, following some of the worst shelling in years.
The surge in violence between the nuclear-armed neighbours, who have fought two wars over the Himalayan territory, has coincided with the joint award of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Pakistani and an Indian.
Pakistan's military said on Tuesday it had voiced concern at continued Indian firing across the disputed frontier in Kashmir and in Punjab province.
"A routine weekly hotline contact was established today between directors of military operations of Pakistan and Indian armies," a senior military official said in Islamabad on condition of anonymity.
"Pakistan army's director of military operations conveyed concern to (his) Indian counterpart and pointed towards India's consistent unprovoked firing on civil population living along the Line of Control and the working boundary," the official added.
Meanwhile, a team of UN military observers visited villages affected by the border unrest near Pakistan's eastern city of Sialkot on Monday and Tuesday, the country's military said.
"A team of UN observers met the villagers, witnessed and gathered first-hand account of damage caused to human lives and property due to recent Indian hostility on the Working Boundary," it said in a statement.
The observer group also visited a Siaklot hospital and met injured civilians.
Clashes occur regularly along the disputed border in Kashmir, known as the Line of Control, as well as along the frontier dividing Indian Kashmir from Pakistan's Punjab province.
The latest shelling began over a week ago, and while its intensity has lessened since Friday Pakistani officials say firing has continued.
Islamabad said on Friday that both countries shared a duty to defuse the situation, while India's foreign ministry maintained that "de-escalation is now entirely in Pakistan's hands".
